ADDRESS 


OF 

Hon.  JOSEPH  B.CUMMING 

BEFORE  THE 

Georgia  Teachers’  Association, 

AT  TOCCOA,  GA. 


AUGUST  9,  1877. 


Chronicle  Job  Print, 
Augusta,  Ga. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2016  with  funding  from 
Duke  University  Libraries 


https://archive.org/details/addressofhonjoseOOcumm 


Such  an  audience  as  this,  and  the  occasion  which  has 
brought  it  together,  would  suggest  that  no  theme  for  an  ad- 
dress would  be  appropriate  except  the  profoundly  interesting 
and  highly  important  one  of  Education.  To  discuss  any  other 
topic  than  one  of  the  many  phases  of  this  subject  would  seem 
to  fall  little  short  of  impertinence.  You  have  assembled  here 
for  a definite  purpose,  and'  to  exchange  views  upon  a given 
subject,  not  to  be  entertained  by  essays  on  miscellaneous 
themes  ; and  no  one  who  occupies  any  portion  of  your  valua- 
ble time  can  be  excused  for  introducing  any  other  subject, 
however  attractive.  You  have  come  together  to  reap  and 
glean  this  particular  field,  not  to  wander  at  will,  culling  wild 
flowers  along  any  pleasant  path. 

I have  felt  the  pressure  of  this  very  proper  restriction,  and 
have  preferred  to  prose  rather  than  to  transgress.  I harre 
chosen,  therefore,  one  view  of  the  general  theme  which  en- 
gages your  deliberations. 

One  situated  as  I am  incurs  this  risk:  the  subject  is  new 
to  my  thoughts,  it  is.  very  familiar  to  yours  ; views  of  it  may 
bear  to  me  the  aspect  of  novelty,  while  to  you  they  will 
appear  trite ; I may  endeavor  to  establish  by  labored  argu- 
ment propositions  which,  to  your  mind,  are  Axiomatic.  If 
this  turn  out  to  be  the  case  in  this  instance,  then  at  least  I 
shall  have  the  consolation  of  knowing  that  no  greater  evil 
can  ensue  than  the  loss  to  you  of  the  time  which  your  cour- 
tesy has  assigned  to  me.  while  I discuss,  in  a plain  way,  both 
in  the  abstract  and  with  reference  to  Georgia,  the  relation  of 
the  State  to  Education. 

Georgia,  in  the  last  few  years,  has  done  much  towards 
shaking  off  her  prejudices  and  indifference.  But  while  I 
believe  that  most  of  us  will  live  to  see  the  time  when  our 
citizens  will  be  divided  in  their  views  of  the  right,  the  expe- 
diency and  the  duty  of  the  State  to  furnish  general  education 
by  taxation,  no  more  than  they  are  now  divided  in  their  senti- 
ments as  to  habeas  corpus,  yet  at  present  there  are  thousands 
in  the  State  who  deny,  or  doubt,  or  disapprove.  Any  word 
which  will  tend  to  produce  harmony  erf  sentiment  and  concert 
of  action  on  this  great  subject  will  be  fitly  spoken.  Anything 
that  is  done  firmly  to  establish  an  enlightened  and  progressive 
system  of  general  education  as  a normal  and  matter  of  course 
part  of  our  economy,  is  done  in  season.  Whoever  contri- 
butes in  any  degree  to  the  confirming,  improving  and  per- 


3 


fecting  such  system,  will  have  a share  in  the  magnificent  result 
of  increasing  the  wealth  of  the  State,  of  enlarging  the  happi- 
ness of  her  people,  and  even  of  making  her  fair  face  still 
fairer;  for  intelligence  cannot  become  general,  and  now  un- 
seen resources  not  be  discovered  ; wealth  cannot  accumulate, 
and  the  uncultivated  places  not  blossom  and  bloom  ; the  heart 
and  mind  of  man  cannot  be  enlightened,  and  new  beauties 
not  spring  up  around  his  home  and  about  his  path. 

One  class  of  those  who  deny,  or  doubt,  or  disapprove,  do 
so  from  a common  and  useful  spirit  of  opposition  to  every- 
thing new.  They  are  ultra  conservatives.  They  look  on  the 
support  of  education  by  the  State  as  a modern  invasion  of 
individual  rights.  I propose,  by  a few  general  observations, 
to  show  that  these  objectors  are  mistaken  in  fact;  that  there 
are  few  things  older  than  the  practice,  to  some  extent.,  of 
States  educating  the  citizen  or  subject.  Whenever  the  State 
has  needed  a trained  soldier,  that  State — whether  a pure 
Democracy  or  an  absolute  monarch,  like  Louis  XIV.  who 
said  of  himself,  “I  am  the  State!" — has  not  hesitated  to  take 
the  public  money  and  educate  the  soldier;  nor  has  it  ever 
entered  the  mind  of  citizen  or  subject  to  question  State  edu- 
cation in  this  form  ; for,  in  such  a case,  the  expediency  of 
educating  the  soldier  in  the  art  of  war  has  been  apparent — 
the  benefit  to  be  derived  by  the  State  obvious  and  direct. 
Hence,  preceding  State  schools  for  instruction  in  other  duties 
of  citizenship,  we  find  military  schools  established  and  main- 
tained by  the  State  and  approved  by  the  people.  What,  too. 
is  an  established  Church  but  au  institution  supported  by  the 
State  for  the  eductation  of  the  people?  The  fact  that  the 
instruction  imparted  by  it  is  mainly  religious  affects  not  the 
principle.  Through  that  part  of  history  which  we  call  the 
Middle  Ages,  almost  all  the  intellectual  food  provided  for 
the  masses  of  Christendom  came  from  the  Church  : and,  dark 
as  those  ages  were,  they  would  have  been  overhung  by  a 
still  blacker  pall  but  for  the  feeble  light  which  the  teachings 
of  the  Church  imparted  to  the  masses  of  the  people.  It  is 
true  that  the  Church  drew  much  of  her  revenues  from  the 
endowments  of  pious  founders,  but  it  may  be  laid  down  as  a 
proposition  substantially  correct,  that  the  Church  was  sup- 
ported from  the  coffers  of  the  State  ; and  we  wander  not  far 
from  the  truth  when  we  say  that  in  this  way  such  education 
as  the  people  had,  the  State  provided.  If  we  turn  back 
further  to  those  States  whose  records  have  come  down  to  us 
least  impaired,  and  to  which  the  scholar  turns  most  lovingly. 


4 


we  find  not  a little  of  State  education.  It  is  true  we  do  not. 
or  at  least  I do  not,  know  much  about  public  schools  in 
Greece  or  Rome,  but  it  is  quite  certain  that  both  Athens 
and  Sparta  had  educational  laws  ; that  in  Athens  at  least  the 
orphans  of  soldiers  killed  in  battle  were  educated  at  the 
public  expense,  and  that  all  children  in  Sparta  were  taken 
from  their  parents  and  sent  to  public  schools.  But  there  was 
other  education  furnished  to  the  people  more  or  less  directly 
at  the  public  expense.  Many  prisoners  brought  Caesar  and 
other  conquerors  home  to  Rome,  whose  ransom  did  the 
general  coffers  fill,  and  much  public  money  acquired  in  this 
way,  and  in  others,  was  at  Rome,  and  in  the  cites  of  Greece, 
laid  out  in  public  buildings  and  in  works  of  art.  Was  there 
no  education  in  the  masterpieces  of  statuary  and  architecture 
which  adorned  Athens  am1  Dnme?  Was  there  nothing  ele- 
vating in  the  constant  presence  of  these  embodiments  of  the 
beautiful  and  sublime?  Who  could  look  at  the  Acropolis 
and  not  feel  the  stirrings  of  his  better  nature?  Who  could 
live  in  the  daily  presence  of  the  works  of  the  masters — know 
them  as  familiarly  as  the  tools  of  his  trade,  and  not  enter 
somewhat  into  the  spirit  of  the  master,  and  be  lifted  some- 
what near  the  master?  And  was  there  no  instruction  to 
be  had  in  the  Agora,  when  Pericles  discoursed  of  high  themes 
there?  And  did  not  the  masses  who  crowded  the  forum  to 
hear  Cicero  become  more  enlightened  while  he  philosophised? 
That  this  idea  is  not  merely  fanciful,  let  a little  reflection  on 
the  populace  of  Rome  determine.  It  was  as  keen,  and 
sprightly,  and  quick-witted  a people  as  ever  lived — good 
judges  of  public  men  and  public  measures  ; people  of  ideas  and 
taste  withal — some  of  the  commonest  of  them  uttering  senti- 
ments which  have  come  down  through  the  ages.  Think 
how  superior  they  were  to  their  neighbors — neighbors  in  time 
and  space,  in  intelligence,  in  those  mental  and  moral  quali- 
ties which  make  a State  great.  How  superior  we  must  admit 
them,  in  many  respects,  to  the  uneducated  masses  of  our  own 
people.  Take,  for  instance,  their  appreciation  of  oratory. 
Imagine  a son  of  old  Rome — some  Gracchus,  or  Claudius,  or 
Fabius.  or  Antony,  ascending  the  rostrum  in  the  forum  at 
the  Comitia.  and  treating  this  keen,,  wide  awake,  practial 
Roman  audience  to  such  a speech  as  your  average  Georgia 
politician  dispenses  from  the  stump.  Imagine  him,  after  the 
manner  of  our  fellow  citizen,  shouting  the  whole  of  his 
speech  from  the  exordium  all  through  the  peroration  with 
the  same  monotonous  vociferation,  with  sublime  contempt  for 


5 


grammar,  ungraceful,  awkward,  violent  in  his  gesticulation, 
slovenly  in  his  pronunciation,  and  commonplace  sadly  in 
the  matter  and  manner  of  his  discourse  generally.  In  other 
words,  take  our  average  Georgia  “public  man,”  put  him 
in  the  forum,  array  him  in  a toga,  let  him  talk  Latin  as 
badly  as  he  talks'  English ; let  him  bawl  as  lustily  at  the 
Comitia  as  he  does  at  the  barbecue ; let  him  saw  the  soft 
Italian  atmosphere  as.  he  does  the  free  air  of  Georgia;  in 
short,  let  him  make  such  a speech  on  the  public  affairs  of 
Rome  as  he  is  ready  to  favor  you  with  whenever  called  for : 
let  him  give  his  Georgia  manner  and  style  to  the  inhabitants 
of  the  etrnal  city,  and  what  fate  would  your  expect  for  him? 
I am  not  accurately  informed  what  treatment  was  usually 
accorded  by  a disgusted  Roman  audience  to  an  intolerable 
bore  ; but  such  as  it  was,  be  sure  our  Georgia  friend  would 
have  received  it,  full  measure,  heaped  up,  pressed  down,  and 
running  over.  Now,  what  was  the  cause  of  this  superiority? 
Is  it  not  to  be  found,  to  some  degree  at  least,  in  the  public 
education  furnished,  more  or  less  directly,  by  the  State  to  the 
Roman  citizen — an  education  that  came  to  him  from  the  pub- 
lic assemblies,  the  public  buildings,  the  works  of  art,  which 
Consuls  and  Tribunes  of  the  people,  out  of  the  public  coffers, 
put  before  him,  on  his  right  hand  and  on  his  left? 

But  I cannot  dwell  on  this  part  of  my  subject.  I meant 
only  to  throw  out  some  few  observations  in  opposition  to  the 
idea  entertained  by  many  that  this  thing  of  education,  fur- 
nished at  the  public  expense,  is  a new  invasion  by  Govern- 
ment of  individual  rights.  I have  endeavored  to  show,  by  a 
few  general  observations,  that  in  remote  times  States  have 
more  or  less  directly  furnished  some  sort  of  education  to  the 
people.  I rather  apprehend  that  the  difference  in  this  respect 
between  the  past  and  present  is  to  be  found  in  the  greater 
regularity  and  uniformity  of  operation,  and  obviousness  and 
directness  of  connection.  Then  the  raising  of  money  for 
public  purposes  was  not  so  much  as  now  a matter  of  rule.  It 
was  not,  as  now,  when  if  a dollar  of  public  money  is  spent 
for  any  purpose,  it  must  be  seen  and  known  of  all  men.  In 
other  words,  in  these  days  State  education  requires  an  educa- 
tional tax.  and  this  question  is  thus  thrust  upon  the  notice  of 
every  man  : “Ought  the  State  to  use  one  man’s  money  for 

the  education  of  another  man’s  children?”  And  the  fact  is  left 
out  of  view,  that  to  some  extent,  with  more  or  less  direct- 
ness. through  various  ways  of  spending  the  public  money, 
civilized  States  have  always  dbne  this  thing. 


6 


The  exact  proposition  of  the  objectors  is  this:  The  State 
has  no  right  to  take  money  from  one  man  to  educate  another. 
This  objection  would  be  found  most  naturally  with,  and 
would  come  with  most  force  from,  the  childless  rich.  Is  it 
not  met  and  answered,  or  do  I only  convince  myself  by  the 
question — is  not  one  man’s  blood  spent  for  the  benefit  of 
another?  YY'ar  lowers  upon  the  confines  of  the  State;  does 
the  State  hesitate  to  send  any  of  her  citizens  to  the  front? 
The  man  taken  may  have  very  little  at  stake.  The  invading 
army  can  do  him  but  little  harm.  His  hut  is  safe  in  a 
sequestered  glen  of  yon  rugged1  mountain.  The  vine  and  the 
fig  tree,  beneath  which  his  humble  life  would  have  passed, 
smooth  and  peaceful,  would  not  be  wasted  by  the  spoiler. 
The  scanty  acres,  sufficient  for  his  frugal  wants,  would  not  be 
coveted  by  the  conqueror.  It  is  the  waving  fields  of  the  rich 
that  will  be  trampled.  It  is  those  abodes  of  wealth  and 
luxury  that  will  attract  the  plunderer.  It  is  yon  defenceless 
cities  of  the  plain  that  will  feel  the  shot  and  shell,  and  will 
vanish  in  fire  and  smoke  ; and  he  might  witness  their  over- 
throw in  the  same  security  and  with  more  indifference  than 
Lot,  looking  from  the  mountain  at  the  destruction  of  Sodom 
and  Gomorrah.  Successful  invasion  might  sweep  the  land, 
one  government  be  overthrown  and  another  succeed,  tribunes 
be  cast  down  and  a throne  set  up,  and  the  even  current  of  his 
life  How  undisturbed,  and  the  contented  domestic  circle  be 
unbroken.  But  the  State  summons  him  to  the  frontier,  and 
that  the  weatlh  of  the  land  may  be  spared,  there  he  must 
bleed  and  die.  Shall  the  State  have  all  the  blood  of  this  man 
to  defend  the  property  of  the  rich,  and  not  have  a pittance  of 
the  property  of  the  rich  to  enlighten  this  man?  But  there 
are  no  wars.  The  commercial  intercourse  of  the  country  oc- 
cupies chief  attention.  High  roads  for  travel  and  trade  must 
be  constructed  and  kept  in  order.  AYho  is  most  interested  in 
this  subject,  the  poor  man  who  has  neither  time  nor  money 
for  travel,  who  goes  not  to  market  because  he  has  no  surplus 
to  sell,  and  no  money  to  buy  withal ; or  the  rich,  who  has 
his  surplus  crops  or  his  merchandise  to  transport.  And  yet 
Georgia,  at  least,  has  always  required  the  labor  of  every  man 
alike  for  this  purpose. 

Leaving  out  of  view  for  the  present  the  great  blessings  she 
derives  to  herself  from  educating  her  citizens,  and  putting  the 
question  upon  the  lower  ground  of  returning  service  for  ser- 
vice, the  State,  or  society — for  under  our  system  these  are 
convertible  terms — owes  something  to  every  citizen.  She 
extracts  everything  of  every  one  that  her  normal  wants  or 


7 


pressing  emergencies  demand.  She  is  content  with  his  sweat 
and  his  money,  if  they  suffice  ; she  will  have  his  blood,  if  it 
is  needed. 

What  will  she  give  him  in  return?  All  are  agreed  that  she 
owes  him  something- — at  least  food  and  raiment,  shelter  and 
burial,  if  his  own  efforts  cannot  provide  them.  Witness  our 
poor  houses  and  potters’  fields.  Upon  what  principle  does 
she  owe  these?  Will  it  ’be  said  that  humanity  demands  this 
much?  Most  true,  humanity  does  demand  this  much.  But 
upon  what  principle  do  the  claims  of  humanity,  if  the  State 
can  respond  to  them  at  all,  stop  with  the  care  of  the  body 
and  leave  the  mind’  and  soul  to  starve? 

1 only  seek,  in  this  dull,  labored  way,  to  advance  a little 
from  well  established  positions.  These  established  positions 
I understand  to  be,  that  the  State,  or  society,  claims  ordinary 
or  extraordinary  services  from  the  citizen,  even  to  his  life, 
according  to  her  exigencies;;  that  the  State,  or  society,  has 
long  admitted  some  counter  claim  on  the  part  of  the  citizen, 
and  has  provided  for  the  preservation  and  burial  of  the  body. 
The  position  to  which  I move  in  advance  of  these  established 
propositions  is  this:  That  no  principle  of  law,  of  political 
ethics,  or  private  rights,  or  of  humanity,  limits  the  action  of 
the  State  to  these  admitted  obligations;  that  the  obligation 
to  give  what  she  does  give  is  not  in  the  nature  of  thing  more 
binding  than  the  obligation  to  give  more  ; that  her  right  to 
tax  for  those  things  for  which  she  habitually  taxes  is  not  in 
principle'  better  established  than  her  right  to  tax  for  other 
things  ; that  whether  the  State  will  sustain  a liberal  system 
of  public  instruction  by  taxation,  is  a question  not  of  right, 
but  of  expediency,  to  be  dealt  with  like  any  other  matter  pf 
established  right.  This  is  a safe  committal  of  the  subject  to 
the  forum  of  enlightened  expediency.  Our  people  is  an  emi- 
nently safe  people.  They  are  calm,  reasonable,  conservative: 
they  will  deal  with  this  question  in  practical  wisdom  ; con- 
tests will  be  waged:  over  it,  as  over  every  interesting  subject 
of  public  policy.  There  will  be  your  enthusiast,  unable  to  see 
any  proper  appropriation  of  the  public  money  except  for  edu- 
cational ’purposes — who  will  believe  in  his  heart  that  a liberal 
school  system  will  be  a panacea  for  all  ills,  political,  social, 
financial ; he  will  be  at  one  end  of  the  list.  At  the  other 
will  be  your  constitutional  grumbler,  who  would  neither  give 
millions  for  defence  nor  a farthing  for  tribute — who  conceives 
himself  robbed  whenever  he  pays  his  poll  tax — who  hates 
new  things — who  loves,  if  he  loves  anything,  the  abuses  of 


8 


the  past — who  (that  I may  sum  up  in  one  sentence  his  depth 
of  darkness  on  this  subject),  if  he  had  to  be  taxed  at  all  for 
education,  would  return  to  the  old  Inferior  Court  poor  school 
system,  of  which  more  anon.  But  neither  of  these  extremists 
will  prevail.  The  people  of  'Georgia  have  never  failed  in  the 
long  run  to  deal  in  wise  moderation  with  every  problem  of 
State  policy,  and  this  one  they  will  settle  with  due  regard 
both  to  the  progress  of  the  age  and  the  sacredness  of  private 
rights. 

So  much  for  the  relation  in  the  abstract  of  the  State  to 
education.  What  has  been  her  relation  historically  to  this 
subject?  She  has  never  been,  since  her  independence  of  the 
crown,  wholly  apathetic  and  indifferent.  What  she  has  done 
or  attempted  may  be  considered  under  the  two  heads  of  the 
common  schools  and  the  University.  I adopt  the  names 
which  the  laws  gave  them.  lEbth  these  designations  were  in- 
appropriate. There  were  no  common  schools  until  recently  ; 
there  has  never  been  a University. 

First  of  the  schools:  In  1785  the  Legislature,  in  a flaming 
preamble  to  one  of  its  acts,  set  forth  the  importance  of  edu- 
cation. In  1820  it  exempted  real  estate  of  academies  from 
taxation.  In  1821  it  passed  an  act  for  the  permanent  endow- 
ment of  academies  and  common  schools.  This  act  set  apart 
$500,000  of  bank,  stock  owned  by  the  State  and  appropriated 
the  dividents  of  it  to  free  schools  and  academies.  The  yield 
from  this  source,  if  the  stock  remained  intact,  could  not  have 
been  more  than  $40,000  per  annum.  From  that  time  until 
1843.  while  hardly  a session  of  the  Legislature  passed  without 
some  legislation  on  this  subject,  it  was  nothing  but  tinkering 
and  botching  a wretched  and  wholly  inadequate  system.  The 
scope  and  purpose  of  such  legislation  was  ordinarily  to  alter 
some  trifling  detail  of  a bad1  plan,  such  as  to  prescribe  who 
should  take  the  census  of  the  children,  whether  the  Jus- 
tices of  the  Peace  or  some  other  person ; what  amount  of 
bond  should  be  given  by  the  treasurer  of  the  poor  little  fund  : 
what  form  of  oath  should  be  taken  by  the  half  paid  teachers, 
as  it  such  changes  could  transform  an  extremely  faulty  sys- 
tem into  a perfect  one.  Such  were  the  efforts  of  the  State 
until  1843.  The  act  of  1843  codified,  as  it  were,  all  the  pre- 
vious legislation  on  the  subject.  In  the  meantime,  part  of 
the  bank  stock — that  of  the  Bank  of  Darien — had  disap- 
peared : and  this  act  of  December  27,  1843,  set  apart  about 
$260,000  of  stock  of  the  State  Bank  and  of  the  Bank  of 
Augusta.  The  yield  from  this  source  was  about  $20,000  per 


9 


v 


annum.  These  dividends,,  and  such  additional  fund  as  the 
Justices  of  the  Inferior  Courts  might  levy  by  taxation  on  the 
recommendation  of  the  grand  juries  of  their  respective  coun- 
ties, composed  the  educational  fund.  Most  of  us  ican  remem- 
ber how  reluctantly  such  a tax  was  laid,  how  small  it  was, 
how  little  it  swelled  the  pittance  derived  from  the  State,  how 
contemptible  was  the  aggregate  amount. 

Inadequate  as  it  was,  it  was  administered  honestly  but  not 
wisely.  The  stewards  of  it  were  the  Justices  of  the  Inferior 
Court.  That  respestable  magistracy  was  in  their  time  over- 
whelmed with  gratuitous  services  to  the  public.  They  were 
Pontifices  Maximi,  or  chief  bridge  builders;  they  managed 
the  roads,  the  finances,  the  public  buildings,  the  jail,  the 
poor.  They  were  a Court  of  Common  Law,  and  the  Court 
of  Ordinary,  and  a Criminal  Court,  for  the  trial  of  felonies 
among  negroes.  A more  patriotic  set  of  men  no  country 
could  show,  but  there  were  not  selected  ordinarily  with  ref- 
erence 'to  any  special  enlightment  on  the  subject  of  educa- 
tion. They  meant  well,  doubtless,  and  they  managed  the 
educational  interests  of  their  counties  not  much  worse  than 
they  tried  law  cases,  but  a good  deal  worse  than  they  made 
roads  and  bridges. 

The  fund  thus  administered  by  these  respectable  gentle- 
men, was  from  the  time  of  its  creation,  in  1821.  until  1840. 
known  indifferently  to  the  law  as  the  free  school  fund,  the 
common  school  fund,  and  the  poor  school  fund.  There  never 
was  any  appropriateness  in  the  name  of  common  school — the 
schools  which,  by  its  feeble  aid,  “languishing  did  live,”  were 
not  common  to  the  children  of  the  State.  In  1840,  some  legis- 
lator, with  an  eye  to  the  eternal  fitness  of  things,  had  the  name 
made  to  conform  to  the  thing,  and  thenceforward  by  law  it 
was.  what  it  had  always  been  in  fact,  in  more  senses  than 
one,  the  “Poor  School  Fund.”  This  sapient  legislator  would 
have  done  well  to  disregard  absolute  symmetry  in  this  respect. 
He  dealt  a serious  blow  to  the  already  sickly  system.  With- 
out this  name,  it  had  already  too  many  distasteful  features 
for  the  poor.  In  fact,  under  this  system,  education — which, 
in  its  own  right,  is  associated  'with  ideas  of  dignity  and 
ennoblement- — presented  itself  to  those  to  be  benefitted  by  it 
it  the  guise  of  social  inferiority.  The  act  of  December  22. 
1828,  in  so  many  words,  made  “extreme  indigence"  the  quali- 
fication of  admission  to  these  schools.  It  had  for  the  parent 
or  the  child  of  spirit,  the  objection  of  charity  given  almost 
contemptuously.  It  was  presented  as  one  of  the  branches  of 


10 


pauperism  ; it  stood  in  the  minds  of  men  on  the  same  footing 
with  the  poor  house;  it  smelt  of  broken  victuals.  Education 
acquired  in  this  way  was  at  too  great  a cost  to  natural  and 
respectable  feelings  of  the  human  heart,  and  doubtless  many 
a parent  preferred  for  his  child,  and  many  a child  preferred 
for  himself,  perhaps  with  false  but  insurmountable  pride, 
ignorance  and  equality,  rather  than  “the  three  R’s”  with 
social  inferiority.  The  teachers  themselves  did  not  wholly 
escape  the  shabbiness  of  the  system.  They  were  miserably 
compensated,  and  the  pittance  they  received  was  paid  them 
only  after  their  oath  that  they  had  done  their  simple  duty. 
The  whole  system  was  a poor  one,  based  upon  fundamental 
errors.  As  much  was  done  as  could  be,  by  giving  it  degrad- 
ing names,  and  throwing  around  it  an  atmosphere  of  con- 
tempt and  meanness,  to  make  it  as  unattractive  as  possible,  it 
is  not  strange  that  it  accomplished  little  or  no  good.  The 
best  that  can  be  said'  of  it  is  that  it  showed  that  the  great 
heart  of  our  mother  was  burdened  with  solicitude  for  her 
children  and  could  not  rest.  She  must  be  doing  something 
for  them,  albeit  ineffectually  and  foolishly. 

In  1850  the  benefits  of  the  system,  thitherto  confined  to 
the  poor,  were  extended  in  theory  to  all  alike  ; practically,  the 
poor  children  had  the  preference.  This  was  an  important 
step  in  the  right  direction.  It  was  at  least  a partial  recogni- 
tion by  the  State  of  her  duty  to  supply  education  to  all  her 
children.  This  change  of  theory,  and  the  addition,  under 
certain  restrictions,  of  the  net  earnings  of  the  State  Road  to 
the  educational  fund,  brings  the  school  system  down  to  what 
I shall  call  its  Modern  History,  that  history  commencing  with 
the  Constitution  of  1868. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  “University."  The  act  of  1785. 
before  referred  to,  was  “An  act  for  the  more  full  and  com- 
plete establishment  of  a public  seat  of  learning  in  this  State." 
The  language  of  the  preamble  is  so  full  of  grand  expectations 
that  I recite  it,  and  let  it  speak  for  itself : 

“As  it  is  the  distinguishing  happiness  of  free  government 
that  civil  order  should  be  the  result  of  choice  and  not  neces- 
sity, and  the  common  wishes  of  the  people  become  the  laws 
of  the  land,  their  public  prosperity,  and  even  existence, 
very  much  depends  upon  suitably  forming  the  minds  and 
morals  of  their  citizens.  When  the  minds  of  the  pepole  in 
general  are  viciously  disposed  and  unprincipled,  and  their 
conduct  disorderly,  a free  government  will  be  attended  with 
greater  confusions,  and  evils  more  horrid  than  the  wild,  mi- 


ll 


cultivated  state  of  nature.  It  can  only  be  happy  where  the 
public  principles  and  opinions  are  properly  directed,  and  their 
manners  regulated.  This  is  an  influence  beyond  the  stretch 
of  laws  and  punishments,  and  can  be  claimed  only  by  religion 
and  education.  It  should,  therefore,  be  among  the  first  ob- 
jects of  those  who  wish  well  to  the  national  prosperity  to  en- 
courage and  support  the  principles  of  religion  and  morality, 
and  early  to  place  the  youth  under  the  forming  hand  of 
society,  that  by  instruction  they  may  be  moulded  to  the  love 
if  virtue  and  good  order.  Sending  them  abroad  to  other 
countries  for  their  education  will  not  answer  these  purposes, 
is  too  humiliating  an  acknowledgement  of  the  ignorance  or 
inferiority  of  our  own,  and  will  always  be  the  cause  of  so 
great  foreign  attachments,  that  upon  principles  of  policy  it  is 
inadmissible. 

"This  country,  in  the  times  of  our  common  danger  and 
distress,  found  such  security  in  the  principles  and  abilities 
which  wise  regulations  had  before  established  in  the  minds  of 
our  countrymen,  that  our  present  happiness,  joined  to  the 
pleasing  prospects,  should  conspire  to  make  us  feel  ourselves 
under  the  strongest  obligation  to  form  the  youth,  the  rising 
hope  of  our  land,  to  render  the  like  glorious  and  essential  ser- 
vices.to  our  country. 

“And  whereas,  for  the  great  purpose  of  internal  education, 
divers  allotments  of  land  have  at  different  times  been  made, 
particularly  by  the  Legislature  at  their  session  in  July,  1783, 
and  February,  1784,  all  of  which  may  be  comprehended  and 
made  the  basis  of  one  general  and  complete  establishment: 
Therefore  enacted." 

What  rolling  sentences  J What  magnificent  expectations  ! 
What  immense  superiority  over  all  foreign  institutions  of 
learning  is  foreshadowed ! As  Ave  read  Ave  begin  to  feel 
almost  sorry  for  the  departing  glories  of  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge waning  before  this  one  general  and  complete  estab- 
lishment. All  this  magniloquence  of  the  preamble  rolling  in 
our  ears  conjures  up  before  us  nothing  less  than  Salamanca, 
Avith  its  12,000  students,  and  Bologna,  with  its  13,000.  The 
lame  and  impotent  conclusion  Avas  Franklin  College.  FoIIoav- 
ing  this  tremendous  flourish  there  was,  through  a long  series 
of  years,  any  quantity  of  legislation  in  reference  to  the 
“University."  but  it  Avas  all  petty  and  barren  of  good  results. 
It  Avas  mainly,  from  time  to  time,  to  increase  or  diminish  the 
number  of  trustees,  to  prescribe  the  time  of  meeting  of  the 
Senatus  Academicus,  to  perfect  titles  of  purchasers  of  the 


12 


University  lands.  There  was  enough  of  this  patching  and 
tinkering  to  keep  the  Legislature  in  rememberance  that  they 
had  a University,  so-called;  but  it  did  not  advance  that  insti- 
tution one  step  nearer  the  position  arrogated  to  it  by  its  high 
sounding  name.  Silver  and  gold  for  this  beggar,  sitting  at  the 
beautiful  gate  of  learning,  the  State  had  none,  but  such  as  she 
had — trustees — freely  gave  she  unto  it.  To  look  through  the 
legislation  of  this  subject  of  the  “University,”  one  could 
hardly  escape  the  conviction  that  the  Legislature  thought — 
its  views  fluctuating  between  giving  and  taking  away — that 
Franklin  College  was  to  be  made  what  the  preamble  to  the 
act  of  1785  contemplated,  “the  one  general  and  complete 
establishment”  of  learning,  by  the  addition  and  subtraction  of 
trustees,  and  that  the  cause  of  advanced  learning  was  fixed  on 
a firm  foundation  when  the  trustees  assembled  in  august 
senatus  academicus.  Little  had  this  legislation  to  do  with 
that,  without  which  there  could  be  no  improvement — money. 
When  it  could  spare  time  enough  from  making  and  unmaking 
trustees,  the  Legislature,  on  two  occasions,  loaned  the  “Uni- 
versity" $5,000  and  $10,000,  having  good  care  to  secure  the 
repayment.  The  permanent  endowment  became  in  1821 
$8,000  per  annum,  less  than  one-third  of  the  sum  now  raised 
annually  by  Richmond  county  to  suppliment  the  State  aid  to 
her  common  schools.  Not  much  could  be  expected,  of 
course,  from  such  an  institution.  It  was  in  vain  that  it  had 
honorable  and  learned  and  zealous  professors.  Dependent 
for  his  support  upon  private  tuition,  it  had  to  debase  its  cur- 
riculum and  lower  its  standard  so  far  that  none  inclined  to 
apply  should  be  rejected,  and  none  ever  admitted  should 
thereafter  be  cast  out.  The  consequence  was  inevitable. 
The  instruction  it  imparted  was  that  of  a tolerable  academy, 
and  the  degree  -it  conferred  alike  on  the  proficient  and  the 
unlearned  had  neither  value  nor  honor.  I do  not  mean  to 
say  that  there  are  not  many  ripe  scholars  among  the  alumni ; 
but  I do  say  that  its  curriculum  and  its  standard  were  not 
calculated  to  make  scholars.  It  would  be  more  agreeable  to 
myself,  and  doubtless  more  popular  among  my  hearers,  to 
speak  of  the  “University”  in  different  terms.  But  wre  are 
dealing  with  this  subject  as  men  seeking  to  improve.  We 
shall  not  improve  while  we  make  that  which  is  unworthy  the 
subject  of  commendation.  But  I do  not  speak  of  the  Frank- 
lin College  of  the  present  hour.  I confess  my  ignorance  of 
its  actual  condition.  I trust  that  there  have  been  improve- 
ments of  which  I have  not  heard. 


13 


So  much  for  history.  We  are  now  confronted  with  the 
immediate  present.  What  shall  we  do?  Fortunately,  we 
have  not  now  to  commence  in  this  consideration  with  first 
principles.  The  Constitution  of  the  State,  the  course  of 
legislation  under  it,  and,  more  important  still,  public  opinion, 
recognize  the  fact  that  the  State  must  foster  a system  of  gen- 
eral and  advanced  education.  It  is  no  longer  an  answer  to 
the  advocacy  of  such  measures  that  they  require  taxation.  So 
do  Courts  and  the  administration  of  civil  and  criminal  law ; 
but  no  one  dreams  of  closing  the  Courts  on  this  account. 
Public  opinion  is  prepared  to  recognize  that  the  sustaining  a 
liberal  system  of  education  is  a legitimate  and  desirable  exer- 
cise of  the  powers  of  government.  How  shall  this  power  be 
exercised  in  Georgia?  At  your  invitation.  I give  my  crude 
views  for  what  they  are  worth. 

I would  say:  First,  The  State  should  furnish  directly  a 

system  of  primary  schools,  as  free  and  as  universal  as  wide 
air.  The  sum  necessary  for  this  branch  of  the  system  should 
be  appropriated  directly  from  the  Treasury  of  the  State.  The 
primary  schools  should  be  recognized  as  one  of  the  prime 
necessities  of  the  State — neither  subject  to  the  apathy  or 
prejudices  of  local  interests,  nor  dependent  upon  the  fluc- 
tuations of  particular  funds.  Right  here  I would  say  that 
I would  divorce  the  fortunes  of  education  from  those  of 
circuses  and  the  retail  of  liquor,  which  are  now  wedded  by 
our  law.  It  is  a most  unnatural  alliance.  I am  assailing 
neither  the  retail  of  liquor  nor  the  exhibitions  of  the  circus 
and  of  negro  minstrels  ; but  it  is  rather  a fantastic  result  of 
our  legislation,  that  its  direct  tendency  is  to  make  the  friends 
of  education  desire  the  spread  of  bar-rooms  and  welcome  the 
coming  of  a clown  as  a great  boon. 

By  commont  consent,  it  seems  to  be  agreed  that  the  stud- 
ies in  these  primary  schools  shall  be  reading,  writing  and 
arithmetic  : but,  as  I shall  presently  show.  I would  have  this 
matter  regulated  by  the  University — the  University  of  the 
future.  But,  university  or  no  university.  I would  have  as  a 
part  of  this  primary  instruction,  presentation  in  simple  narra- 
tives of  the  characters  of  great  and  good1  men  and  women. 
This  primary  department  is  the  only  part  of  the  system  sure 
to  reach  every  child;  and  I would  give  him.  before  he  goes 
out  into  this  common-place  world,  a higher  ideal  of  humanity 
than  he  will  be  apt  to  encounter  in  his  actual  experience — not 
omitting  from  my  sketches  those  glorious  old  heathens  who, 
however  much  theologians  may  be  puzzled  to  locate  their 


14 


departed  spirits,  played  here  in  the  flesh  grand  roles  of  virtue 
and  true  greatness.  In  this  way  ingenuous  youth  might  be 
led  to  lift  his  eyes  to  better  models  than  the  small  men,  to 
whom  it  is  the  disgusting  practice  of  the  times  to  accord  cheap 
apotheosis. 

The  practical  qualification  of  the  beneficiaries  of  this  part 
of  the  system  would  be  a minimum  age.  Xo  better  can  be 
devised.  As  a rule,  children  reaching  a certain  age  are  capa- 
ble of  receiving  corresponding  instruction.  In  the  interest  of 
the  little  things,  I would  not  have  the  minimum  age  too  low. 
Between  the  universal  primary  schools  at  one  extreme  of  the 
system  and  the  University  at  the  other.  I would  have  too 
other  grades  of  schools,  the  admission  to  each  grade  to  be 
restricted  by  examination  and  by  a minimum  of  age — lack  of 
proficiency  or  lack  of  age  to  exclude.  I would  have  this 
minimum  of  age  so  low  that  no  bright  child  should'  run  the 
risk  of  staying  out  of  school  altogether,  or  in  a lower  depart- 
ment, which  he  had  already  mastered.  These  two  interme- 
diate grades,  also,  like  every  part  of  the  system,  I would  have 
supported  by  the  State,  but  these  two  by  that  portion  of  the 
political  State  which  acts  through  the  counties.  The  primary 
department  is  universal ; the  census  determines  the  number  of 
its  beneficiaries.  The  second  and  third  grades  will  each  grow 
smaller  than  the  preceding,  and  their  numbers  will  not  be  so 
easily  ascertainable  in  large  areas.  By  the  time  the  second 
grade  is  reached  many  will  have  dropped  out  from  various 
causes.  X’ot  least  among  them  will  be  the  discovery,  among 
the  children  of  the  rich  and  poor  alike,  that  many  have  taken 
in  all  that  their  minds  can  hold.  In  the  condition  of  the  poor 
— the  inequality  of  which  is  of  God's  ordinance,  and  which 
human  institutions  cannot  wholly  remove — many  a bright 
little  scholar,  having  received  his  quantum  of  the  rudiments, 
must  come  even  now  to  the  work  of  life.  His  services  are 
needed  to  take  care  of  the  little  brothers  and  sisters,  or  his 
puny  efforts  may  be  valuable  in  weeding  the  small  garden  or 
in  tending  yon  scanty  flock.  This  general  cause  of  depletion 
of  the  schools  will  operate  more  forcibly  in  each  higher 
grade.  The  workshop,  the  store,  and  the  farm  will  make 
inroads  upon  the  ranks  of  scholars,  and  the  particular  effects 
of  these  causes  can  be  best  measured  and  provided  for  by 
local  authorities.  As.  too,  these  higher  grades  are  less  a 
matter  of  necessity  than  the  primary,  I would  leave  the 
system  as  to  them  more  flexible  and  more  dependent  upon 
the  fluctuations  of  local  prosperity. 


15 


As  I would  have  the  broad  base,  the  primary  schools,  sup- 
ported directly  by  the  State,  so  also  with  the  apex,  the  Uni- 
versity. I would  have  a University  in  its  true  sense,  with  its 
college  of  literature  and  its  colleges  of  law,  medicine  and 
philosophy,  meaning  by  the  last  the  sciences ; should  have  it 
not  only  a University,  but  one  of  a high  order,  if  good  pro- 
fessors, selected  without  favoritism  and  fairly  paid,  could 
make  it  so.  It  should  be  the  fountain  of  instruction,  from 
which  streams  should  flow  all  through  the  educational  system. 
It  should  license  the  teachers;  it  should  prescribe  the  cur- 
riculum of  the  schools.  This  latter  duty  was,  under  our  old 
system,  performed  by  the  Justices  of  the  Inferior  Court.  This 
was  ludicrously  absurd.  Is  it  much  better  when  it  is  left  as 
it  now  is,  in  many  instances,  to  county  officers,  selected  with- 
out reference  to  fitness  for  this  thing?  The  weakness  of  the 
system,  apart  from  its  poverty,  has  been  in  the  past,  that  it 
expected  the  performance  of  a special  act  as  an  incident  of 
offices  having  no  reference  to  it,  whereas  it  is  a high  and 
difficult  specialty,  to  be  performed,  if  at  all  well,  by  those 
whose  specialty  it  is. 

The  State  of  Georgia  is  a great  country.  I know  that  love 
of  country  is  a sentiment  most  apt  to  mislead.  Not  least 
among  its  provisions  for  human  happiness,  Providence  has 
ordered  that  to  each  man  that  land  on  which  his  eyes  have 
first  opened,  and  upon  which  ordinarily  the}-  will  last  close, 
shall  be  to  him  the  happiest  and  best  of  earth. 

"The  shuddering  tenant  of  the  frozen  zone 
Boldly  proclaims  that  happiest  spot  his  own ; 

Extols  the  treasures  of  his  stormy  seas. 

And  his  long  nights  of  revelry  and  ease. 

The  naked  negro,  panting  at  the  Line, 

Boasts  of  his  golden  sands  and  palmy  wine  ; 

Basks  in  the  glare,  or  stems  the  tepid  wave. 

And  thanks  his  gods  for  all  the  good  the}"  gave. 

Such  is  the  patriot’s  boast,  where'er  we  roam. 

His  first  best  country  is  at  home." 

There  is  on  the  West  coast  of  Iceland,  about  ten  miles 
from  it,  a group  of  islands  called  the  Westman  Isles.  They 
rise  goo  feet  of  perpendicular  rock  out  of  the  stormiest  sea 
that  rolls.  The  only  inhabitated  one  of  the  group — Heimaey — 
does  not  contain  ten  square  miles.  Not  a tree  can  rear  its 
head  from  the  barren  rock,  or  could  withstand  the  unceasing 


16 


gale.  No  verdure  is  there  no  nourish  flock  or  herd.  The 
food  of  the  inhabitants  is  fish  and  the  flesh  and  eggs  of  sea 
birds.  This  unwholesome  diet  slays  their  little  ones  with  a 
slaughter  almost  as  general  as  King  Herod’s.  No  harbor 
indents  that  iron-bound  coast  save  the  narrow  crater  of  an 
extinct  volcano.  Not  more  than  twice  a year  can  any  craft 
leave  or  approach  those  storm-swept  cliffs.  There  the  few 
inhabitants  live  and  die  in  almost  absolute  isolation,  in  a 
dreary  waste  of  rocks  and  waters,  a desolation  of  wind  and 
storm  ; and  yet,  to  them,  it  is  "that  happiest  spot  on  earth." 
In  1627  one  of  the  few  calm  days  vouchsafed  to  that  stormy 
coast  came  fraught  with  dire  disaster  to  those  poor  islanders. 
A vessel  of  Algerine  pirates,  cruising  these  seas,  swept  away 
all  the  inhabitants  of  Heimaey.  Most  of  them  died  in  cap- 
tivity. The  survivors,  few  in  number,  ransomed  by  the  King 
of  Denmark,  having  the  whole  world  to  choose  from,  im- 
pelled by  that  universal  feeling,  love  of  country,  preferred 
their  desolate  rock  to  all  other  parts  of  the  earth,  and  thither 
they  returned. 

Notwithstanding  such  warning  as  this  against  the  blind- 
ing effect  of  love  of  home,  I think  I may  reasonably  say  that 
Georgians  have  a heaven-favored  land.  In  extent,  an  em- 
pire ; in  natural  qharacterists  of  endless  variety ; in  capa- 
bilities for  the  future  of  boundless  promise.  One  can  within 
her  borders  breathe  the  bracing  atmosphere  of  the  mountains, 
and  be  fanned  by  the  soft  airs  coming  up  from  the  not  distant 
tropics.  Great  rivers  flow  through  her  wide  territory,  and 
the  boundless  ocean  receives  them  at  her  own  doors.  Her 
fertile  plains  wave  with  plentiful  harvests;  her  hills  are  cov- 
ered with  priceless  timber,  and  the  sides  of  her  mountains 
barely  conceal  the  rich  mines  they  hold.  What  may  we  not 
expect  from  such  a land  when  universal  enlightment  shall 
cover  it  as  with  a mantle,  and  the  mind  of  knowledge  shall 
inform,  the  eye  of  science  scrutinize,  and  the  hand  of  taste 
adorn  ? 


1; 


